Rhyl man, 28, jailed after threatening to "firebomb" police officer's home and attacking woman in front of her own children

Reporter:

Staff reporter (Rhyl Journal)

Thursday 13 April 2017 15:11

RHYL man has been jailed today after a court heard how he subjected three police officers to vile racial abuse.

Defendant Lee Michael Jones, 28, threatened to follow one officer home and firebomb her home.

He said he would kill her, and subjected her and other officers to racist abuse, which a crown court judge said was “as bad as it gets.”

Jones, of Grosvenor Road in Rhyl, initially denied assaulting a young woman he had just met online.

He claimed that she was making up the claims because she was disappointed that he could not perform sexually.

Jones was jailed for two and a half years after he admitted a series of offences including common assault on the young woman he had just met over the Internet, three charges of racially aggravated threatening behaviour, a threat to kill, a threat to commit arson and two charges of criminal damage.

He said he would not repeat it. “Suffice to say it is as bad as it gets. You used racist language towards three police officers.”

In the case of one female officer, in addition to the racial abuse, he went much further.

“You threatened to wait for her after work, to follow her home and fire bomb her address and kill her,” the judge said.

Police had to put up with an awful lot during their work and were trained to deal with difficult situations.

But such behaviour would not be tolerated.

“It would be deeply unsettling for any public servant and I have no doubt that it what you intended,” Judge Rowlands told him.

Prosecuting barrister Sion ap Mihangel said that the defendant’s behaviour had been “very unpleasant”.

A young woman in Rhyl first had contact with the defendant over Facebook on March 18 and he popped around for half an hour at 11 pm.

But when he returned at about 6am the following day he was loud and agitated, was asked to leave but he assaulted her in front of her children.

He slapped her across the face, pulled her hair and after she tried to calm him down she managed to get out with the children and raise the alarm at the home of a neighbour.

When police arrived at the address there was a confrontation where he was aggressive and abusive and would “not listen to reason.”

He was eventually arrested when he was threatened with a tazer but he became extremely abusive and threatening, repeatedly used abusive language.

The defendant threatened to bite a female officer’s nose off, threatened to arm himself with a meat cleaver, said he would stick a knife in her face and in addition to threatening the officers said what he would do to their daughters.

He said he would kill one of the officers after calling her a fat Welsh slag and he head-butted a rear window the police car.

Police had to go to the cost of specialist cleaning after he spat in the car and in the cell.

He shouted racially abusive language at one of the officers .

Interviewed, he denied assaulting the woman who he said he had known for a few days on line.

He had gone around to her home to get to know her better.

The defendant even claimed that she was making the assault allegations because she was disappointed that he could not perform sexually,

He said he had no recollection of making the threats or racist abuse, but said he may have made comments in drink.

Defending barrister Simon Killeen said that the defendant appreciated that it was extremely unpleasant and unacceptable to be “spewing this sort of horrible abuse and hatred.”

The problem was alcohol – that night was the first time he had drunk alcohol after a substantial period of time.

“He normally avoids it assiduously,” said Mr Killeen.

The defendant had a partner but they split up that day and he could not cope.But they had two children and he appreciated that his prison sentence would mean that he would miss the birth of their third.